Yellow or Orange

I spent a good deal of my afternoon removing soil from a flower planter that is on our back porch. This is step on in the back porch rebuild. The bricks in the planter are falling out anyway, so before we rebuild the top I though it best to remove the planters. I have been trying to determine if I want to replace the windows in my house, or have them replaced. I am not sure what the cost savings would be, Ryan said that I could do it myself. If there is enough cost savings then I will do it, otherwise, I will hire it done.

Church, I went this morning, the sermon was good. Attendance was a little spares, someone asked me if it was "National Skip church Sunday, because it sure looks like it." They do not know what they are missing out on. I also had the privilege of running the projection system during Praise and Worship, this went ok, (note to self: It is hard to follow along with the singing while visiting.)

For the real question of the day, in the picture below, is the Sugar Waffer Cookie Yellow or Orange?

If you could please comment on which color you think it is we would be grateful.

After we returned from Bell practice, Cap played in the dirt and then in the water, but we did not let him make any mud. Last night I ordered an iPOD, today at lunch I played with my moms, I sure do like them. I think I should have played with it before I order it, so I really am glad that I like it. It is the little Nano one. Tonight I went to the store, McDonald's, and took Mazie for a walk.

The Bike Rack Adventure

It might not be an adventure, but I could not think of a better title. I had ordered a bike rack on Amazon.com last week thinking that it would arrive in time for the big trip to the ShinerBash. However, the company that I ordered it from, through Amazon called and let me know that it had been backordered. This resulted in a trip to Amarillo for the three of us. It turns out that we got the same one that I had ordered on the internet, and for about the same price. The only difference was that Cap got to play in the bike store while the rack was being assembled. After that we headed off to the Kid's Gap, The Christian Book Store, Home Depot, and Abuleo's. It was a fun morning; we were back in Big B by 1:30 pm.

I managed to break the spring on my new air hammer this afternoon while tearing down the planter on the back porch. I wonder if it still under warranty, I have only had it for ~ 1 week.

I read in the Newspaper that a British fellow wrote a Spanish version of the Star Spangled Banner. This is disturbing on several levels. The first is that it is not in English, while America does not have an official language; I have yet to see a dollar in Spanish. Secondly, Francis Scott Keys wrote the Star Spangled Banner while the United States was at War with Britain. Now we have a British Fellow changing our National Anthem (adopted in 1931). (http://www.usflag.org/history/francisscottkey.html) Finally, and most disturbing, is the wording was changed quite a bit, and it has a new context. "The second stanza for example states:'My people keep fighting. It's time to break the chains'" Yahoo News Link.

Friday, the day of Rain!!

Today is actually Saturday, but I will be looking back at Friday, the day that it rained.

It was very pleasant weather when I left for work. Once I was at my office the temperature went down, and then it rained. It rained off and on all day, it is was the only measurable moisture that we have had since August or September (I really cannot remember). That made Friday even better then most Fridays.

Amy's sister went to the doctor and she was informed that she might have Preeclampsia, later in the day she was feeling bad, so they sent her to the hospital. That was the major news of the day.

Cap was quite oblivious to all of the happenings, and actually went to bed at 8:00, his normal bed time. Before bed I read Job 2, I have not been looking forward to reading all of Job out loud to Cap before bed time, but the first few chapters have been better than I remember. Of course, in retrospect I was not looking forward to reading Leviticus, but we made it though that book as well. Reading the Bible out loud gives it a new dimension; I am retaining more of the information that is in there.

Below is a picture that Cap colored at Kid's Camp, several weeks ago.

Welcome to Audix, you have 5 new messages...

I like my job, especially as I sit at my desk all morning long and 3 people call me, and I get 5 new e-mails. Then in the afternoon, I leave me office for 2 1/2 hours and come back to 20 e-mails and 5 new voice messages. It is a challenge dealing with all the communications that occur at work...

Cap and Amy went for a bike ride this afternoon. They both survived, we had a good lunch, guacamole and chicken caesidea. This evening we ventured out to have dinner and visit with some close friends. It was GREAT, good food and a good visit.

On a more off beat tone, I have listed below the talk radio that one can listen to on the FM stations here in Big B
4:00 am - BBC World News - National Public Radio (NPR)
5:00 am - 9:00 am - Morning Edition - NPR
10:04 - 11:00 am - Today's Issues- American Family Radio (AFR)
11:30 am - 12:00 am - The Radio Reader - AFR
12:30 - 1:00 - AFA Report - AFR
4:00 - 7:00 - All Things Considered - NPR
7:00 - 7:30 - Turning Point with David Jeremiah - AFR
7:30 - 8:00 - Love Worth Finding - AFR
8:00 - 8:30 - Leading The Way - AFR
8:30 - 9:00 - Money Matters - AFR
9:00 - 9:30 - Family Life Today - AFR
One might want to ask me why I listen to NPR, and if you do, feel free...
I really though that this was interesting the amount of talk radio that is on an FM frequency, from radio stations that are not necessary "Talk Radio Stations".

Below are some news links

Gas Crisis
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/28/washington/28energy.html?ex=1303876800&en=2bf2b4a2a610ce4e&ei=5089&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss

Christian Discrimination
http://media.afa.net/newdesign/ReleaseDetail.asp?id=3448

Unusual News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060427/od_nm/thief_dc_1

I did not do the spell checker last night, I have done it tonight!!

Administrative Proffessional

Have you ever wondered where some job titles come from? When I was in college I worked for a small independent (Family Owned) oil company and I gave myself the title of "Director of North American Operations". Which was true, because I was the man, I paid the bills, completed the reports and dug the ditches. In the american work force, and the realm of political correctness we live in, instead of Secretay, they are now the Administrative Proffesional. The title along implies being very good at the task at hand. I know several that are excellent to work with, and I have worked with others that were not so professional.

Words and titles are interesting, especially for men. I think that is because we are so keen to judge people by what they do. As if your occupation will enlighten us about who the person really is. I have met plenty of lawyers that were nice people, several doctors that were very unfriendly, and an entire army of people that were great no matter where they worked or what they did.

It appears as though the congress people who are reacting to the current high energy prices. I would challege each one of them about what they have done durning the last ten years to assist in elivating this current issue. I am afraid that congress will over react while they are playing party politics and make the situation worse. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/27/business/27oil.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5089&en=c94218bf2daf66af&ex=1303790400&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss

Concrete Eliminator!!

I got to try out my new air hammer, which worked great, this evening. As project "Demo-flower" continues in the back yard. I am not sure if it speed the process up any, but I can still move my arm, event's it feels like it is shaking... Especially after 2.5 hours. I had a hot date with my wife for lunch, we dined at the COffee Ranch, I had the same thing she always orders for me. THe El captain was fussy this and, but he fell asleep once we put him in his crib.
Below Cap is studding something that is of interest...


It is nice to know that the United States Congress is concerned about the price of gasoline, that they are proposing a windfall profit tax. Last November the senate actually voted on such a tax and it failed. I feel that if the Congress is so concerned about the price of fuel, that they should roll back their taxation on gasoline. Which is in the neighborhood of 25c per gallon, with the states adding an additional tax after that. In addition, the API reports that the earrings of the Oil & Gas industry was 8.2 c per dollar of sales. The national average was 6.8 c per dollar of sales, the highest sector pharmaceuticals was 18.5c per dollar of sales. If anyone group is having windfall profits it is clearly the pharmaceutical. YOu can click on the link below and it will take you to the API Report.

http://api-ec.api.org/media/index.cfm?bitmask=001007000000000000#

Morose Monday

...5:21... ..."what is that noise"... ..."its that alarm clock"... ...And thus another week begins, or ends depending on your perspective. Work was work, went to a meeting, made some phone calls, dropped off on package... The highlight of the day was watching the people go door to door at my parents neighborhood while we stood upstairs and did not answer the door when they rang the bell. Since I parked my car at the next door neighbor's house, they stopped there, even though no one has lived in the house for 6 months. That does making parking easer for large family gatherings. We had supper at my parents, and ate pot roast, mashed potatoes (the boys like that), carrots, brownies, and it was all GREAT. For lunch today I had a hot dog on wheat buns, my wife threatened to purchase spinach buns, and I gave her the look. Not sure if it did any good, because she was laughing at me as I walked out the door. Which makes me thing of an 80's song, You Got the Look, I do not remember who sings the song. Below is a picture of Cap, anticipating bath time.

That's my Stool...

I woke up about 6:30 am this morning, and had to pacify to dog for a while before I could let her out in the backyard. The neighbors do not like it when she is out barking before 7:00 am, and 8:00 am would be better. I do not blame them; they are not running around their house making all sorts of noise. It sprinkled a little bit last night; I still ran the tractor sprinkler, which works great. I can set it up and turn it on with the stop on the hose. When it hits the stop it automatically stops, which is “neat”, or “cool”, or (possibly if you are from the 80s) “WICKED”.

The rest of the day’s events went down like this:
Church 10:30 – 12:00
Lunch at parents 12:00 – 1:20
Worked in back yard 1:20 – 2:30
Preparations to attend party 2:30 – 2:45
Attended Birthday Party 3:00 – 4:45
Went to Youth 5:00 – 6:30
Picked up Cap 6:30 – 7:00
Bath/Bed time for Cap 7:15 – 8:00
Work around the house 8:00 – NOW…

I did spend a great deal of time taking pictures this morning. The Birthday party was good, Cap had a good time, and I had a nice visit with some friends…

At Youth we played kick ball, and once again I was on a losing team, then we talked about Mission Trips. I have lots of memories from Mission Trips in the past. I think that they are an excellent way to get to know the group better, and to grow closer to God. Part of that is being semi-isolated from the world around you. These are the times, when you are not focus so much on your career, home improvements, or other hang-ups, but you are focus on doing Gods work. Showing his love by building or repairing someone’s home is a powerful message.

The picture below is Cap playing in his PJs this morning.

The Turkey Invasion

This morning a gaggle or flock of Turkeys was out in the area behind the house. I have never seen them this close to town, and judging by the barks, neither had the dogs on the street. I am not sure what they were doing, other then upsetting the little puppies.

Amy's bike ride did not go well today, she road about 5 miles. Returned with an injured ankle, and has been laidup all afternoon.

Got Cap's closet cleaned out, it only took 1 hour, not really sure why it had not been done before this point but it has not.

Last night we went and at Kabuki (Japanese's Steakhouse) and saw Failure to Launch, which was all together a pretty good movie.

21 -- A Basketball Game

It was another fun and exciting day at work, filled with suprises and new challenges to over come. Just one more day until the weekend. This week has gone by with record, well maybe not record, but pretty quickly. Tonight after Epic we played 21 for about 1 hour. It was fun, Andy beat us 4 games in a row, so I am kind of hanging my head down, because that is just embarising. However, to my creidt it was the first time that I have played basketball in about 3 years. Additionally, I was wearing berkinstock sandles, of course Andy did not have any shoes at all on. I think that we need to practice more before we take him on again...

Cap learned a new word the other day, it was horse...

Spring is in the Air

another exciting day in the Texas Panhandle... It included a trip to the doctor who said, "well I am not sure what is wrong and the last two tests did not tell me anything, so lets try some different drugs." Of course the evening was capped off with Church Choir Practice and a 2 hour meeting at church, which was worth the time. However, for someone who left his house at 6:30 am returning only briefly during the day, getting home at 9:30 pm made for a long day.

As spring draws near so does the need for gardening activities...

Ready... Set... GO!

Greetings, and salutations are in order for anyone whom stumbles across this blog. It is starting right NOW! There are lots of blogs out there, professional ones, not so professional ones (amateur), news blogs, and political blogs. I would like for this one to encompass things from each one of those. My goal, is to sound professional, as I report on my daily news and how it adds to the politics of this nation. Just for fun, below is a picture of my son playing in the water, he found the sprinkler very amusing!